Eastman Depot

A railroad station stop of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad was constructed in 1869. The president of the railroad was William Pitt Eastman, an industrialist. When Eastman visited the new stop, he purchased land on both sides of the line and laid out a town. William Dodge, president of the Georgia Land and Lumber Company, funded the building of a courthouse in exchange for the county being named after him.

Find your Ancestors before 1790

Railroad Dollars: The Macon and Brunswick Railroad

Railroad Dollar During the 1860s the railroad printed its own dollar as a means of payment for wages. Male railroad workers were paid between $1 and $5 per day. Immigrants were paid the lowest amount. In 1922 it was reported that the railroads did a large volume of business on a narrow traffic margin.